There's No Such Thing, right?
by Cerise Jones
Summary: Halloween GOTG fic - On the bright side, they've narrowed it down to either a ghost, demon or literal nightmare terrorising them on their own ship. On the dark side... well, it seems as though they're about to find out. Screaming, running and blood seeping from the walls... not ideal when you're on a spaceship with no where to escape. And Peter thought Halloween would be fun..
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**: Long time no see! I'm so glad to be back posting on here, I'll admit I did abandon this site slightly for ao3 but hey, I came back didn't I? **!** Make sure to check out my ao3 for a long multi chapter endgame fix it fic! I didn't post it on here so if you want some closure (plus Gamora alive AND Adam freakin Warlock) head over there. ANYWAY, enjoy the Guardians freaking out on Halloween :)

**Gamora**

"DRAX-"

Gamora turned her head in the direction of Peter's shout, walking through the ship as she frowned at the loudness of his tone. Before she could take another step, the ship almost trembled with a louder yell from Drax in response to what Gamora supposes is Peter's third jumpscare today, having had to deal with the consequences of his juvenile pranks when he creeped up behind and yelled in both Rocket and Groot's ears.

You can imagine how it went with Rocket, though Peter's prank must have worked since there were now claw marks on the ceiling from where Rocket jumped so high. The only person he hasn't tried it on is her, so it seems he does have some sense. He also wouldn't dare try and terrify Mantis, mostly because she'd be able to sense him coming due to the blaze excitement radiating off of him, partly because you'd have to have no soul to want to terrify Mantis.

But he seemed to have no problem getting the rest of them, it obviously worked on Drax too, considering that was the closest thing Gamora has heard to a screech coming from him.

She's about to shake her head at the fact that Drax even fell for it after already having two warnings today, but almost jolts instead as Drax's yell is followed by a higher pitched shriek from Peter directly after.

"What the-"

She stops and turns on her heels, marching towards the source of the commotion as the muffled sound of Drax and Peter's voices were being thrown back and forth. Gamora bursts her way into Drax's room and immediately sets eyes on the scarlet foundation protruding from Peter's nose, watching him clutch his face as he bends over.

"What is happening in here-"

"Drax just tried to kill me!" Quill splutters, standing up straight and pointing with a bloody hand to Drax who looked beyond offended.

"You attacked me first, what did aim to achieve by approaching silently and shouting my name at me?"

"It was s'pposed to be a joke."

"It was not amusing in any way."

"Yeah, no shit!" Peter yells as he cradles his face, turning as Gamora's sigh was even louder than the two of them. She walks over towards him, holding out a hand to his face.

"Let me see."

He slowly moved away his hand, wincing as he did so but leaning down slightly so she could get a clear view. She felt his eyes on her face, awaiting her reaction as she inspected.

"He just broke my freakin face, didn't he?"

"No." She says flatly, bending down to grab a surprisingly clean towel (compared to Rocket's laundry) laid on Drax's bed and placing it over Peter's face. She acknowledged Drax by giving him the same glare Peter was when she walked in.

"Drax, what were you thinking? You almost broke Peter's face."

"You're blaming me? He should count himself lucky, I was close to smacking him through the wall with the way he sneaked up on me."

"You know what?" Peter taunts, voice muffled and nasally as he holds his hand over Gamora's to help apply pressure. "You're just mad because I scared the shit out of you."

"You did not scare me, you startled me."

"Whatever, your reaction was almost as good as Rocket's, but instead now I gotta hole in my face."

"And for what?" Gamora raises her eyebrows, asking him as his eyes drift slowly to her. "In celebration of that ridiculous holiday that no one in their right mind-"

"Hey, Halloween is a big deal where I come from. Took me ages to work out the date in this part of the quadrant and if you could see all the people making jack-o'-lanterns on Terra right now, you'd be the one who feels ridiculous." He says, standing there with a scrunched up towel over his face and his hair sticking up in every direction.

Drax scoffed, a reminder of his previous query into why anyone would name a root vegetable 'Jack' as Gamora attempted to flatten Peter's frenzied hair.

"Just go and put some ice on it before it bruises."

He listens to the instruction, walking out of Drax's room after giving him one final scowl over the towel. Gamora looks at the slight traces of blood on her hands before following Peter, hearing Rocket's voice erupt in the corridor.

"What happened to you?"

"Shut up." Peter huffed out, marching past him and throwing himself into the bathroom before shutting the door abruptly.

Naturally, Rocket cursed something at Peter in response, storming off himself just as the bathroom door flew back open. Gamora watched as the mess of Peter's hair spilled around the door followed by his trademark '_feeling-sorry-for-myself-after-getting-myself-into-shit'_ face.

"G'mora can you hel-"

"I'm coming." She sighs, holding out her palms as the rouge tint of Peter's mistakes cover her hands, ready to patch him up like she has done a million times before.


	2. Chapter 2

Mantis

"What was that?"

Mantis jumps as she turns around, antennae sparking as Rocket trudges into the room.

"The usual, Quill shoutin' at me for nothin after getting beat up."

"I am Groot?" Groot says excitedly, Mantis looks at him from across the table as she senses his amusement.

"Hell yeah Drax beat him up." Rocket responds, smile sharp. "Was a long time comin' if you ask me-"

"Where is Quill?" Drax suddenly appears in the doorway, voice so booming that Mantis almost jumps again. Rocket turns to look up at him quickly, it seems as though they're all pretty jumpy today.

"What d'ya mean where is he? Didn't you punch him straight back to Terra minute ago?"

"No, I punched him in the face."

Drax replies plainly. "I would like to apologise for my acute reflexes-

He's cut off as a sudden noise replaces his voice.

A deep muffled sound that rolls through the air, it's volume growing as Mantis freezes and looks around at each of them questioningly.

"...Geez, Drax was that you?" Rocket gives a disgusted look. "I told you to lay off of those Zarg Nuts-"

"That was not me!" Drax yells, once again offended.

Suddenly the sound emerges around them again, it's grumble prickling Mantis' skin as her wide eyes scan the room for the source.

It gets louder, echoing at them from all angles until it bursts into a high pitched scratch, one that makes each of them flinch, even Drax. Mantis stands up quickly, looking around desperately for the cause as Groot nonchalantly covers his ears. She sees Rocket's mouth move as he swears under the noise, watching him head to a section of the room that she's also heading towards as his ears flick down.

He kicks at one of Quill's music speakers, not caring about the damage he's doing until the infernal sound fizzes and splutters to a stop. The normal hum of the ship glides through the air again as Groot removes his hands from his ears, just as casually as he'd put them over them.

"Flarkin' Quill with his music." Rocket huffs as a tool appears in his paw that he whipped out from his belt. Mantis watches as he twirls it and jabs at the rainbow of wires in the back of the speaker. "I tried fixin' this piece of junk last week."

Mantis flinches at he stabs the tool into a cord. "Careful! Don't electrocute yourself." She warns, visualising Rocket becoming even more fluffy and a hot head from literally being fried.

"Relax,"He shrugs off her concern. "This isn't one of those dumb appliances what roasts you when you pull at wires," He announces, pulling at a wire. "I upgraded this thing, couldn't electrocute me if it wanted to."

"If you upgraded it then why is it broken?" Drax says sharply. "Cease it from making that accursed sound, it's almost as bad as the music."

Rocket sways the tool up defensively as though it were a weapon. "It's broken because Quill plays the damn thing constantly-"

"What the hell d'you do to my speakers?!" Mantis flicks her head over to the doorway where Quill suddenly emerged, standing there with a thick white bandage over his nose and two black eyes to go with it, along with a frown that he aims at Rocket who aims a more experienced one back, clearly not liking his tone.

"What the hell d'you do to your face?" Rocket retorts, Gamora looming from behind Quill's shoulder and following him through the doorway to take a seat at the table, not bothering to find out what Quill and Rocket were bickering about now as she sat next to Mantis. Rocket continued.

"You look like a horror show."

This seemed to snatch Gamora's attention.

"That's what I was trying to remember, a horror." Quill looked at her questioningly as he took a seat. "I do not see why you couldn't have just played one of those awful horror movies from Terra instead of these ridiculous pranks."

"There's no need for horror films, have you seen his face?"

Quill lunges to grab Rocket but he's too fast, scurrying underneath the table and snickering as he climbs onto his seat.

"It's much more fun this way." Quill defends, Mantis frowns at the weird sound of his voice from his blocked nose. "Besides, you guys should love Halloween, imagine all the people you could freak out with your weapons and your tattoos and the fact that you're a talking animal that can't shut up." He laughs to himself. "You guys would be scary as hell for Halloween- well, apart from you Mantis."

Mantis pauses, tilting her head slightly as she ponders. "I can be scary." She states. Drax almost laughs, Rocket scoffs.

"What d'you mean she's not scary? She's all bug eyes and antennas-"

He's cut off as Gamora kicks at him from under the table. Quill resumes his point.

"I'm talking about personality. Like, you say one bad thing to Gamora, you'd probably run for the hills before you finished what you were saying. You say a bad thing to Mantis, she'd find a way to flip it and compliment you somehow, you're just really sweet is all I'm saying."

Mantis takes in the word 'sweet' and smiles for a moment, before catching herself and frowning. "But I could be scary too, like you guys."

"Who you kidding? You couldn't freak out anybody with your cutesy act. I've met Flerkens scarier than you."

Mantis opens her mouth to say something else but decided against it, she merely looks over as Drax takes his seat at the table, making the room shake.

"I'm sorry for my sharp reflexes. I'm sure your feeble Terran biology will not take that long to heal."

Quill sighs, looking down over his bandage. "Yeah, thanks bud."

"Hey, look on the bright side, you don't need to worry about a Halloween costume 'cause your face is enough of a wreck! Plus, now you got the bruises to add to it."

Peter pauses after Rocket's remark, a mixture of being lightly offended but also hesitating, looking over at Gamora as he contemplates whether trying to stuff Rocket in the air lock would be worth it. He reluctantly decides against it.

Mantis sits quietly as the day goes by, occasionally chiming in to lift someone's spirits or laugh at a joke Drax tried to make that nobody else understood. But something definitely feels off about today, as though she can sense something ominous in the air. So ominous that she almost feels compelled to do more research into this 'Halloween' occurrence...


	3. Chapter 3

Okay guys, I'm SUPER sorry but it's not letting me upload any more chapters on here. **THIS STORY IS CONTINUED ON ARCHIVE OF THEIR OWN**. I've uploaded two more chapters on there and there will be more. My username is Cerise_Jones with the same story title.

Again, I'm sorry. Thank you for reading this far and I hope you're heading over to ao3 to see the Guardians get spooked!


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